the Cherry Grove pier
Budget Tigers

Tiger Shark. Not every heavyweight record requires big bucks, or big boats. Walter Maxwell managed the tiger shark record without a boat, fighting chair, skipper or other help. He caught his fish off a Carolina pier. He remembers the one that got away best. "The big one nearly overlapped the pier's end," he said. "That's 20 feet long." "The little one I caught only went 13 1/2 feet and, after losing an estimated 10 percent of its body weight, weighed in at 1,780 pounds.

While this record may be broken, it won't be broken from a Carolina pier. After jaws, shore communities barred pier fishing for sharks on the theory it wouldn't help tourism.

Back in 1964, Maxwell, a very fit bricklayer, noted, "Shark fishing was big. We could see stripes on tiger sharks that cruised off the piers. I thought I knew why more fish weren't caught. Fishermen didn't have the right kind of gear."

Maxwell geared up with a 16/0 left-handed Penn Senator purchased at a bargain $135. With a custom rod, 1,300 yards of 130 pound test on the reel and a five pound skate bait on 14/0 Mustad hooks whipped onto a bit less than 30 feet of steel cable, he was ready.

After losing a huge shark on Saturday when it swam away with his pier gaff cutting a periscope wake, Maxwell changed his approach. A couple of 10 foot fish hit on other lines. Then, in the confusion, Maxwell missed his hit. When he looked up the rod tip was down. As he ran to the rail in the confusion of crossed lines and cursing fishermen his fish surged out of the water. As Maxwell remembers, "My tiger rolled again about 200 yards from the pier. It sounded like nothing I'd ever heard." A buddy later reported it looked and sounded like "someone had dumped two bathtubs into the ocean at once."

Maxwell's shark headed down the beach toward Florida. With over one half a mile of line out, Maxwell finally stopped the fish. Line built on the reel, then smoked off. The problem was leverage; Maxwell needed to get down on the beach. After four hours and a half, the big shark rolled under the pier. One hook was bitten off; the other barely held at the corner of the shark's mouth just off it's gnashing teeth.

The wire leader came into reach, but even Andre the Giant couldn't wire a shark from a 20 foot high pier. So Maxwell managed to place his gaff in the shark's mouth. The gaff handle tore free, but the inch-thick gaff line held. Maxwell jumped down to the soft sand, hauled his catch into the shore break and lassoed the shark's head and tail. It took nearly a dozen men on three ropes to strand the huge fish above the surf. The fish lost pounds in the long wait for the wrecker's truck arrival. It still beat the old record by 350 pounds. Fisheries experts agree that, if weighed when caught, it would have topped a ton.

And I have been swimming in the Cherry Grove area loll my life. What have I been thinking? This story is retold frequently in the Carolinas. Walter is a legend here.

he's a legend among all shark fishermen.

Wow...what a story. Thanks, stx!

Good read. Dude was tough.

Remember when every fishing magazine had a full-page Trilene ad featuring Frank Mundus and Donnie Braddick and their large Great white?

My dad was with some buddies at Cherry Grove that day and he used top tell me about how they were all chuckling at the guy with the big equipment but they weren't laughing when they were in the surf and they followed his line into the water and watched that shark roll. He said it was nothing like anything he had ever seen before

130lb test for a 1780+ lb shark.......and some bass guys will tell you you just gotta have 65 or 80 lb braid to pull a fricken 3 pound largemouth out of some grass......

Yes, but those are BASS!

i've caught 150#+ sharks with an ambassador 6600c and 30# braid.

Excellent post.

back in 2002 hooked up to a big tiger or hammer that almost stripped the reel before straitening out two 18/0 hooks.

kinks in my drops off the main leader were 30", used a 35# jack for bait.

Spent many happy days catching sharks in the turning basin at Morehead,sometimes the crew on one of the ships docked there would drop a line down and we would send them up a shark dinner

I fished many time with Mundus...A real character but could catch a shark for sure !!

BTW, Cherry Grove is in SC. I remember this story well.